Our Favorite Types of Employees (Raves) (LA 1514)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala,
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill Dewitt broadcasting from sweet paradise valley, Arizona.
Steven Butala:
Today. Jill and I talk about our favorite types of employees. These are raves and it’s a-
Jill DeWit:
Positive.
Steven Butala:
…hiring week, all week.
Jill DeWit:
Yep. Employee, employer, I love that. This is going to be good. Things that we’ve learned that we can help you with.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. You know enough.
Jill DeWit:
Because we’ve done it wrong and we’ve done it right.
Steven Butala:
We’re getting a lot of questions from our members about how to scale their businesses up. They’re buying and selling land pretty successfully, and now they want to make it a career.
Jill DeWit:
They need to expand their team and hire people.
Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free, and if you’re already a member, please join us on discord.
Jill DeWit:
Cool. Amir wrote, hi guys, thanks for the endless valuable information you give. I learn something new every podcast you post. As a beginner that aims to make relatively big deals, I want to buy between 30 and 70,000 and sell between 90 to $200,000. That’s my favorite too.
Steven Butala:
That’s what I want.
Jill DeWit:
I’m wondering, should I start with 10 to 20 small deals, buy in $3,000 in sell in the $10,000 range and then scale to the bigger ones or should I get familiar with the big ones right on my first mailer. Thanks at advance, Amir. You want to go first?
Steven Butala:
Yeah. A lot of people had a lot to say starting with our moderator, Kevin. Kevin, I can’t thank you enough, by the way. And they all said go small first and I agree. I don’t necessarily think you need to… And it’s not because, here’s why, there’s two reasons. Number one, you’re going to make some mistakes, everybody does. And the earlier you make the mistakes, the faster you’re going to be successful. So you want to do that on smaller deals. You don’t want to lose a lot of money.
Jill DeWit:
I’m not going to sweat about it.
Steven Butala:
I’m not necessarily saying you’re going to lose money, but you might not do a deed right or you might not respond to a seller the right way, or there’s just little things that happen.
Jill DeWit:
Really, that’s stuff you can solve regardless of the deal. But what if you bought one wrong, I don’t know, you overpaid for one big deal. So, that’s my usual thing at the 10 out of the way. If they’re 10 smaller ones and nine of them are great, and one you’re like, oh, I totally screwed up and shoot. Technically I lost money on that one or I broke even on that one, but that’s okay because the other nine make up for that one and now you got it.
Steven Butala:
And then my second and final point, which is I think incredibly important is you need to find out if this is for you.
Jill DeWit:
True.
Steven Butala:
So there’s a lot of their sips. This isn’t for everybody. It’s a lot of work, it’s extremely rewarding. I think it’s a lot of fun. You might find out this is just no fun.
Jill DeWit:
We are weird.
Steven Butala:
I know. Yes. Land Academy is a group full of weird people that enjoy buying real estate and selling it for more. You get high off of it actually, just do so.
Jill DeWit:
Totally.
Steven Butala:
Here’s another question here later in the week where we talk about the deal high.
Jill DeWit:
Can I pause for just a second here BEcause this is so good? Because we sometimes talk about this differently. We really have told people, Hey, go for it, whatever you want to do, you can just go for it. So there’s no real wrong answer here. If you want to just dive in, go for the bigger deals, you feel real comfortable with them and do deal funding because then you have a second pair of eyes toO kind of guiding you and watching and making sure you make some good selections. That’s not crazy also. So I know people that do that very successfully, are like, I’m not even messing with the little ones and I like that you’re going for not buy for 300 BEcause those are painful.
Jill DeWit:
There’s the smaller deals and when I say small, I don’t mean size, I mean, by money. When you’re dealing with people that spend five to $10,000 for a property versus 50 to a hundred thousand dollars for a property, it’s a different customer and they’re different and it’s much easier. It’s like selling a car off Craigslist for $3,000. You will know what kind of person that’s going to attract. And it’s the same with property. So you buy it at 3000 and sell for 10, that’s already better than buying for 300 and selling for a thousand because a lot of people start there. And that might make them not be as excited about this too. Wow, these are the kinds of buyers that are out there. No, no, no, they’re not all like that, I promise. When you up your numbers, it’s a different person.
Steven Butala:
Yeah. All I got to do is attend that Thursday call, Amir, and you’ll see the types of deals. We have this thing called, would you do this deal? If you attend, please attend those or watch the recordings as a member. I know you’ve just joined, I saw your whole welcome thing in discord. So make sure you watch those Thursday calls or the recordings because we review anybody’s deal that’s in the group and you’ll see the types of deals and then the things that we bring up like, Ray, this is a great deal we think, but you might want to make sure you do this, this, this, and this. And so you want to make sure you do these things correctly in the beginning so it doesn’t discourage you, Jill’s right.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Thanks. Today’s topic, our favorite types of employees, our raves. This is the meat of the show.
Steven Butala:
All right.
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to go back to the kindergarten on this. Plays well with others, courteous and kind.
Jill DeWit:
Our people said the notes are the good ones are favorites and that type that work well together. So I have to think about notes. I think about this for a second. Who was your favorite employee of all?
Steven Butala:
It’s like answering, who’s my favorite kid of the three children.
Jill DeWit:
I know. Do you have a favorite? You don’t have to name names. Don’t name names because they’re going to listen. So do you have a favorite on our staff? No, I don’t, that’s the truth.
Steven Butala:
Really? That’s interesting.
Jill DeWit:
My favorite changes like the children, sometimes we’re on the same page, sometimes we’re not on the same page. But I love them all in their own unique ways. You know what? It’s like for me, employees become and that’s just who we are. Our employees kind of become part of the family, and I love that. So I look at them a little bit like that.
Steven Butala:
Well, you have to decide what kind of employer you want to be before you can answer this question. So we happen to be, and Jill and I, for the most part, we are on the same page now, but when we started working together, we were not. Jill was very, very vocal about everyone’s equal, they need to be treated fairly, and I don’t disagree with that, but I do believe they have to be accountable. And so what ended up happening is we kind of met in the middle and accountability and performance became the metric and then we massively reward them for that.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
And so just through attrition, hiring, and people leaving or us letting them go, we have a group now of people that are completely and totally autonomous. They all work at home, they all hit their numbers, I mean daily, every single day and every single month. Sales numbers and production numbers and all of that. And we got to buy a certain amount of property every month, we have to sell a certain amount. Dollars in of transactions and the group that we have now does that without our involvement. So autonomy and accountability is my favorite type of employee.
Jill DeWit:
That’s the hardest thing.
Steven Butala:
And it’s tough to find people like that.
Jill DeWit:
That are kind of there. So the good ones and my favorite ones are the ones that are self motivated. That’s it. They don’t need me everyday telling them that you’re doing a good job or me everyday checking in going, what are you working on today and say, yep, that’s good and no, that’s not good. And that part is hard to find. So there’s an internal talent, an internal part of them that has their own drive, number one. And then the second part is training them to what you’re looking for. they might think they’re doing a great job because every day they do X, and that’s not what I hired you for. I need you to do Y.
Steven Butala:
I mean, here’s a great example. The person who on our staff who runs marketing, he started, we hired three or four people altogether. I’m in charge of marketing. We hired several people all at the same time with the thinking that somebody is going to rise to the top and hits the sky.
Jill DeWit:
Actually, that was a pretty good idea you had by the way, we had two guys.
Steven Butala:
This was years ago.
Jill DeWit:
We narrowed it down and you said higher in both.
Steven Butala:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, oh, that’s pretty smart.
Steven Butala:
But over the course of time we’ve had a lot of people in that position and this person is by far the best. And he daily, I’m a huge fan of click through rate, CTR and cost per clip. Whether you’re selling real estate or you’re selling water heaters, those things are imperative. And he consistently achieves a 5% click through rate and a cost per click that’s below a dollar. And actually it’s closer to 30 cents. I mean, this has been years now on a daily basis. He achieved this without my involvement. So that’s the kind of employee, that’s my favorite type of employee. And honestly, we don’t have a bad employee right now. We’ll talk about that tomorrow, but I couldn’t be more proud of the group that we have now. And we’re at a point now for the first time in my career where the people that are working there are hiring people below them and they’re doing it because they can get along with those people. And so we don’t have to do it now, and that’s a luxury.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. They know what they need. So that’s one of the things that we do right out of the gate too, is you got to be real clear with employees and tell them really what you want. Maybe create an SOP. So I’m talking to you right now, thinking about hiring your first person, how’s it going to go? Whatever the position is, please almost have a manual to hand them. So they know exactly what they need to do every day that’s going to, A, make your life better and, B, what you’re looking for. They do want to please you, they want to do a good job. And then as they show up on day one and they’re looking over your checklist of here’s the 10 things that I’m hiring you to do right now, of course, it’s going to grow and it’s going to change.
Jill DeWit:
They should take that 10 list and build it out, and it’s going to be 20. And it’s going to be that 10 things have three things under each one about specifically how you want it done. And you really have to let them run with that. And I always tell everybody when you’re hiring, Hey, as I hire you, I want you to think about who your replacement’s going to be because if this goes well, you’re going to need help.
Steven Butala:
We’re going to ask you to replace yourself and move you up.
Jill DeWit:
And move you up.
Steven Butala:
And so there’s some people that don’t respond to that, and we’re going to actually address these topics throughout the week.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Because as a land person, you’re running your own land business right now and you’re going to need help. And the whole goal and the whole reason that you’re hiring help right now is you can’t keep up with your own deals, which is the best problem to have. So you’re hiring right now because you want to do more deals. So as you do more deals, now you’re going to need three people, now you’re going to need four people, and so on.
Steven Butala:
I’m going to say this throughout the week.
Jill DeWit:
What?
Steven Butala:
Test, test, test, test. Whoever you decide to hire or through your hiring process, they need to take an Excel test. They need to take some version of a personality test because the job that they’re you’re hiring. I don’t even say that in a joking manner.
Jill DeWit:
I know. It’s just funny because that’s how we’ve learned.
Steven Butala:
Here’s an example, in Jill’s perfect Workday, she’s on the phone for four to six hours and maybe two hours of on the computer. And so she’s in her office and her door’s closed and it sounds like she’s talking to her girlfriends from high school. That’s what her business conversations are like with buyers and sellers.
Jill DeWit:
That’s how I deal with files.
Steven Butala:
So in the beginning, I’m like, gosh, she’s just screwing around all day. And then I really started to listen and she’s talking to sellers and making friends with them. And then for the first time, Jill and I took personality tests, maybe it was the first time for me, I think you’ve done it before.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
And what I found out is that is in her personality makeup. And if she doesn’t do that, she doesn’t feel fulfilled. She doesn’t feel like that Workday was really valuable. If I had that job, I would fail at it. I can’t stand talking on the phone to sellers and buyers. I can do it for a while, but if I had to do it, after four weeks, I would quit. And so I’m in a dark room, I’m a data person. So you can’t hire somebody for Jill’s job that has my personality score is my point because they’re going to fail.
Jill DeWit:
He’s an eight, I’m a seven.
Steven Butala:
And there’s nothing that any HR person would ever say that he’s wrong about that. You’re not being judged or anything. You’re taking a test and let’s just see if you’re a phone person or not. It doesn’t come out like that. And there’s a lot of tests like this. So I look back on it, and we’re going to talk about tomorrow. Employees we can do without, is what it’s called. And we’ll talk about day we just hired the wrong people for that job. It’s not bad.
Jill DeWit:
It’s not going to fall.
Steven Butala:
Yeah, exactly. I’m happy you could join us today.
Jill DeWit:
Five days a week class right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow the episode on the Land Academy Show is called employees, we can live without.
Jill DeWit:
This will be fine.
Steven Butala:
You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
It’s going to be a little bit of a rant. The notes from her employees say, let her rip.
Steven Butala:
I get the emails and notes from members and non-members that say, Jack, we love when you rant. I didn’t even know that was possible.
Jill DeWit:
No.
Steven Butala:
So let it rip.
Jill DeWit:
That’s going to be funny. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Hey, if you need access to any sort of ownership or property details, including owner phone numbers and FEMA flood map, overlays, check out neighborscoop.com created by investors, that’s us, for investors like you.
Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill.
Jill DeWit:
We are Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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